Mary Daniels Brown

Mary Daniels Brown learned at an early age how to read people, and she’s been doing that ever since. Combining advanced education in both literature and psychology, she reads and reviews novels that explore identity, the search for meaning and purpose in life, and the varieties of human experience. She’s been blogging about books at Notes in the Margin for more than 25 years. Mary believes that her focus on Life Stories in Literature has made her both a more astute reader and a happier, more human person.

National Book Foundation Announces This Year’s 5 Under 35 Honorees – GalleyCat

National Book Foundation Announces This Year’s 5 Under 35 Honorees – GalleyCat And the winners are: The People of Forever Are Not Afraid by Shani Boianjiu (selected by Nicole Krauss) Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans (selected by Robert Stone) The Walking People by Mary Beth Keane (selected by Julia Glass) […]

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Swedish Poet Wins Nobel Prize for Literature – NYTimes.com

Swedish Poet Wins Nobel Prize for Literature – NYTimes.com Tomas Transtromer, the Swedish poet whose sometimes bleak but powerful work explores themes of nature, isolation and identity, won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday.  

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Monday Miscellany

The greatest death scenes in literature Five judges of the 2012 Wellcome Trust book prize for medicine in literature ponder the question “What makes for a great literary death scene?” Tim Lott calls their choices “eclectic.” Take a look, and see if you have other favorite death scenes to add to the list. The 10

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Amazon Unveils Its Tablet, The Kindle Fire: Can It Compete? : Monkey See : NPR

Amazon Unveils Its Tablet, The Kindle Fire: Can It Compete? : Monkey See : NPR NPR offers an extensive review of Amazon’s new Kindle offerings, including a direct comparison between the Kindle Fire and Apple’s iPad: A supercharged Kindle or an underpowered iPad? For the Fire to catch on, Amazon probably needs it to be

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Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet, Three New Kindle Models Starting at $79

Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet, Three New Kindle Models Starting at $79 At a packed press event in New York this morning, Amazon unveiled its long-expected tablet offering, called the Kindle Fire. The company also debuted three new Kindle devices, with the least expensive priced at $79. Through a link in this short article,

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Glendale school board may block ‘In Cold Blood’ – latimes.com

Glendale school board may block ‘In Cold Blood’ – latimes.com The landmark 1966 literary nonfiction book “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote may not make it onto a high school honors reading list in Glendale after obections were raised by a committee made up of school principals. The school board must approve the book before

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Monday Miscellany

2012 Stamp Preview: A Stamp a Day The United States Postal Service will be issuing some new literature-related stamps in 2012. Click on the numbers to see more information about these: #2 Edgar Rice Burroughs #11 O. Henry #31 Twentieth-Century Poets: Elizabeth Bishop, Joseph Brodsky, Gwendolyn Brooks, E. E. Cummings, Robert Hayden, Denise Levertov, Sylvia

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Harlan Coben in St. Louis: Part II

Part I (in case you missed it) The first question people always ask an author is “Where do you get your ideas?” Coben said that anything, such as a tabloid headline, can stimulate an idea. Then he just keeps asking “What if?” For example, the idea for Promise Me came when he overheard a couple

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